Hurray! I'm caught up to the latest stream again! And I've been watching more of that Japanese let's play as well, so I can answer some of your questions about the translation. 1. Regarding what you ask about at around 17:50, I would say that in general Japanese has different stylistic expectations in regards to Specific Terms (™) than English. In a sense, the phrase "powers of the dead" is even more strongly emphasized in the original. It's written as 《死者のチカラ》(shisha no chikara), with the double angled brackets and the katakana spelling of チカラ (chikara) serving to directly call attention to this as not just a set phrase, but a game specific term. While the emphasis here is arguably stronger in the Japanese, though, the cultural attitudes around this being an awkward thing to make clear in writing (and especially dialog) don't seem to exist the way they do in the English-speaking world. Admittedly, I usually see such set phrases either surrounded with different markers (most commonly 「」) or set off using colored text, but I think the larger point stands. Always writing "powers of the dead", especially if you keep surrounding it with quotes, comes across as pretty awkward in typical English style, whereas in Japanese the equivalent treatment is more standardized and accepted. This can make such phrases difficult to deal with in translation, because they often ARE important. If I was inclined to set off this particular phrase, I'd be tempted to use capitalization to do it (Powers of the Dead) rather than quotation marks ("powers of the dead"), and possibly try thinking of a way to reword the phrase to something less literal (Spiritual Powers/Abilities? Corpsecraft? Spiritcraft? I'm not sure what a good option would be). That said, at least in this instance, the quotation marks make some sense to me because Sissel is specifically talking about how he's not used to these abilities. Also, while the "powers of the dead" approach is literal, it's possible that for some reason I don't know about it really is the most suitable English phrase. Ultimately I don't see this as a huge problem with the localization, even if in an ideal world there would be a way to make it sound smooth in both languages. 2. As for Memry's line at 18:34, the Japanese is "…いつか、もっとスゴイの／シカケちゃいますからねッ！". This is really hard to give a literal translation that makes any sense, but I might render it, "...Well, someday, I'll 'set up' a more amazing thing, you know!" The idea is she uses the same verb that the detective used for "setting up" a listening device (仕掛ける/shikakeru), but changes the meaning through implication when she talks about "setting up" something "more impressive". The double use of the English term "plant" is absolutely perfect here. Not only does it hinge on the same repeated use of a verb as the Japanese, but it actually makes more sense of the phrase as a whole than any attempt at a more literal or direct translation. 3. Just as a general comment on names, it's not at all uncommon for practically every name of a character in a particular work of Japanese media to be some sort of pun. Approaches to this sort of thing vary from property to property, but a lot of the time they simply don't get translated or localized at all. Ghost Trick is interesting because while most of the Japanese names are one kind of pun or another, some of them have been translated while others haven't. I'll be interested to see how many of them (if any) truly end up being plot-relevant as you play! 4. You may want to skip this point for now, as I thought I'd provide some brief mentions of the specific puns employed in a couple of the character names we see at the start of this episode. I don't think either of them amount to spoilers, but I can't guarantee that, so feel free to revisit it later if you're interested: A. Rindge is "リンジュウ" (rinjuu) in Japanese, which is a homophone of "臨終" meaning "deathbed/one's final hour". B. Memry is "メメリ" (memeri) in Japanese, which was chosen as an abbreviated reference to the concept of "memento mori". There are other names that I think might still involve spoilers if I elaborate on them at this point, so I'll wait to bring them up until later in the playthrough. Anyway, that's my localization report for this episode. As always, I hope it was interesting, and I look forward to the next stream! References: JP Let’s Play featuring the term “《死者のチカラ》”: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_luXQj0TYck.html JP Let’s Play featuring Memry’s line: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_luXQj0TYck.html (This is the same video as above, just at a different time stamp.) JP to EN dictionary entry for “仕掛ける”: jisho.org/search/%E4%BB%95%E6%8E%9B%E3%81%91%E3%82%8B JP Let’s Play featuring Rindge’s name: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_luXQj0TYck.html (This is the same video as above, just at a different time stamp.) JP to EN dictionary entry for “臨終”: jisho.org/word/%E8%87%A8%E7%B5%82 JP Let’s play featuring Memry’s name: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_luXQj0TYck.html (This is the same video as above, just at a different time stamp.) Site with confirmed JP wordplay from various online sources (JP): www.ne.jp/asahi/game/gyakusai/gt/k/gt-k-08.html (This is where I got my info on Rindge and Memry’s names. As I mentioned before, if you can read Japanese and haven't played the game, beware of potential spoilers here. It says the info on “メメリ” being a reference to “Memento Mori” was confirmed on the director’s Twitter account.)
LMAO The guard dancing on the dark, i find it too much ilarious as should actually be. i rewarch just for this scene, and still losijg my breath laughing.
Awesome to hear your thoughts on the death and life penalty. I don't have much to add because I entirely agree, but I'm really glad to hear you mention America's obssession with of revenge, because I feel like that's often ignored. I've seen American televangelists even advocate for the death penalty, and it spat in the face of everything I believed in as a then-Christian.
It's such a huge part of American culture, in the worst way, and it gets its claws into so many people and so many places you'd never expect it otherwise. I know this game is mostly lighthearted, but I'm glad it gave me an opportunity to talk about and think about some heavier real-world issues that really need to be confronted.
Yeah, the parallels are really wild, and it was funny to be playing both games at the same time. I've seen some funny (non-spoilery) memes pointing this out! A disco detective AND a detective-ing person who lost his memory??? Two nickels! Times two!
i'll refrain from commenting on the stealth section until you're past it next stream :) had a rough day yesterday and needed pickmeups and distractions so i again watched this on your twitch... yet again i fail your youtube metrics (i am joking and saying things only because they are funny to me) anyway! i think this is a really fun slice of the game between lynne's reckoning with what sissel's told her, the community drama around jowd's hastened execution, and jowd's proper introduction.
No obligation to watch on RU-vid vs Twitch if you need to watch it sooner, although I appreciate that you're leaving comments here too. I hope today is a better day for you! And yeah, this is a really good game, with really good pacing; there's a lot of stuff happening in both the story and the gameplay, without any dull moments, and I love it so far!
It’s not immediately clear how the game feels, but it does feel at least a bit skeptical of the death penalty. I love how the game uses fate changed in its game design and also feels tied into how the characters affect and support each other.
Yeah, saving Jowd was pretty easy, but I like the twist with instead of stopping the chair from exploding, you have to make it explode _before_ they get in the room. That was clever. As they always say in this game, timing is everything. You should give the _Ace Attorney_ series a try, it's made by the same guy who made this game, and it also has a lot of creative mysteries to solve, along with a cast that's just as diverse and colorful. Missle came from there, even!
It wasn't super hard, but it felt very stressful until I wrapped my head fully around how it worked - the stakes definitely felt high, higher than with most of the deaths you have to change! And yeah, I like the solution that the game gives you. Now, if only I can get through this stealth section with my sanity intact... The thing with the Ace Attorney games is that I've technically seen a bunch of them before, but I don't know how much I remember from them (given my well-documented memory issues). I don't know how interesting it would be to go through them because of that, since it might not count as a first playthrough!
Yeah, I posted about it a couple weeks ago, but I'm walking away from it right now. I might come back to it later when the fan fervor has calmed down a bit, but we'll see how I'm feeling. Sorry for any inconvenience!
